Dave Allegaert works as manager of quality and innovation at the AZ Groeninge hospital in Kortrijk, Belgium. Created from a merger of four hospitals, AZ Groeninge became the first non-academic hospital in the Benelux to achieve Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation in 2013. Since then, Dave Allegaert and his team have guided the hospital on the path of continuous quality improvement.

In addition to his involvement with AZ Groeninge, Dave Allegaert has also advised several other hospitals. He has worked as accreditation program manager within Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands.

Dr Nuria Marañón Hermoso is a Preventive Medicine and Public Health Physician, focused on improving patient safety and clinical excellence. Dr Marañón currently serves as Head of Patient Safety at Quirónsalud Group, Europe´s largest private hospital group. In this position she coordinates and oversees the deployment of the corporate patient safety strategy at the different hospitals of the group as it aims to redesign healthcare to be focused on patients and clinical excellence while being more effective and efficient. Prior to this, Dr. Marañón held the position of Director of the Office of the Chief Operating Office at ASISA; the number three private health insurance company in Spain. Preceding her work at ASISA, she held the position of responsible for health care innovation at SANITAS, the second largest private health insurance company in Spain. Previously she worked at the Quality and Cost Control department of BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD in Boston (USA).

Dr Marañón is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality issued by NAHQ. She holds a master’s degree in health care and Policy Management from HARVARD UNIVERSITY, a PhD in Public Health as well as a master’s in public health and a Master in health care management. She has recently completed two senior healthcare management programs at IESE and ESADE Business School in Spain.

Dr Kathy Leonhardt is the Principal Consultant for Quality & Patient Safety at Joint Commission International. She is a preventive medicine/public health physician with over 30 years of experience in public, private, and academic health care organizations.

Dr Leonhardt has held leadership roles in quality, patient safety and patient experience. Her research and publications have included epidemiologic investigations, Phase III clinical trials and quality improvement projects, including an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded (AHRQ) project on patient advisory councils. Through the JCI Quality Management & Patient Safety Program, Dr. Leonhardt has led the education and training of 2,200 health care professionals from over 35 countries.

Adolfo Llinás, is Corporate Chief Medical Officer at Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá, a staff member of the Adult Reconstructive Surgery Section of the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology at Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá and Clinical Professor of the School of Medicine at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.

Formerly, Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology and Director of the joint residency program in alliance with Universidad de Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia. His Fellowship education focused on basic research in musculoskeletal biomechanics, adult reconstructive surgery and musculoskeletal repercussions of coagulopathies, all at University of Southern California, Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital.

Presently, his area of research interest in addition to reconstructive surgery of the hip and knee, is the development of medical models to generate exponential value to patients and families.

Jonathan Perlin, MD, PhD is President and CEO of The Joint Commission Enterprise. Previously, as President, Clinical Operations and CMO, HCA Healthcare, Perlin led clinicians, data scientists and researchers in developing a learning health system model for improving care across 189 hospitals. His team’s work achieved national recognition for preventing elective pre-term deliveries, reducing maternal mortality, increasing sepsis survival, and developing public-private-academic partnerships for improving infection prevention and treating COVID.

Before HCA, Dr. Perlin was Under Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He led VA to national prominence for clinical performance. An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, he has co-chaired initiatives on digital health, combatting opioids and climate change. He has served on numerous Boards and Commissions and holds faculty appointments at Vanderbilt University as Clinical Professor of Health Policy and at Virginia Commonwealth University as Adjunct Professor of Health Administration.

Dr Sangita Reddy is a highly distinguished Global Healthcare Leader, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited, and a widely respected Indian entrepreneur.

She has held a range of prominent positions, including Chairperson of G20 Empower India during India's G20 Presidency and prior President of The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Dr Reddy is additionally the Chairperson of BRICS Women's Business Alliance, India Chapter.

As one of the founding members of Apollo Hospitals, she is fervent in her mission of transforming the healthcare system through technological developments and ensuring global access to healthcare. Recently, she was appointed to the Board of Joint Commission Resources, Inc. (JCR), where she brings her expertise to enhance healthcare safety and quality both in the United States and abroad.

Dr Sangita Reddy strongly believes in utilizing the potential of technology, focusing on futuristic healthcare projects involving IoT, AI, data analytics, drone technology, and blockchain.

Dr Joel Roos is the Vice President of International Accreditation, Quality Improvement and Patient Safety for Joint Commission International (JCI). In this role, Dr Roos is responsible for developing and leading the overall strategic direction of JCI’s accreditation and certification programs. Dr Roos provides oversight in updating and developing new international accreditation standards as well as leading efforts to enhance the international accreditation process.

Throughout his career, Dr Roos has been dedicated to improving patient safety and quality of care for active military personnel and veterans across the country. Most recently, Dr Roos was Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Quality, Safety and Value at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Washington, D.C. While in the Navy, he conducted numerous engagements and created partnerships across the Asia-Indo-Pacific region, that include Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Australia, China and India.

Dr Roos earned his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; an MBA in healthcare management from Brenau University, Gainesville, Georgia; and an MS in healthcare delivery science from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. Dr Roos also completed his training in undersea medicine at the US Navy Undersea Medical Institute.

Dr Roos became a member of the IHF Governing Council in November 2021.

Dana Gelb Safran, ScD, is an internationally recognized healthcare executive with a unique blend of accomplishments in business and academia.

Dr Safran’s prior roles include serving for more than a decade as a senior executive at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA), where she was a lead architect of the BCBSMA Alternative Quality Contract (AQC), which is widely credited with having catalyzed the value-based payment movement among public and private payers nationally. She was a founding member of the executive team at Haven, a joint venture of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase to achieve better health outcomes, care experiences, and costs of care through innovation in care delivery, benefit design and purchasing. Most recently, she was an executive team member at WELL Health, Inc., a health care technology company. Additionally, Dr. Safran is on the faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine and has held a broad range of advisory roles in the public sector and internationally supporting efforts to improve health and healthcare through effective uses of performance measurement. Since 2017, she has served as a Commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).

Dr Safran holds a BA in Biology and Government from Wesleyan University and completed her post-graduate studies at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, earning ScM and ScD in Health Policy and Management.

Dr Albert Ty is the Director for Patient Safety and Quality Improvement in the Singapore Ministry of Health where he oversees the development and implementation of national policies aimed at promoting a culture of patient safety and continuous quality improvement in Singapore healthcare institutions. Prior to this, Dr Ty had extensive public health leadership experience in the Ministry including work on health promotion strategies, non-communicable disease epidemiology and control, and public health intelligence.  

Dr Ty is a neurologist/neuro-oncologist and a public health specialist by training. He holds a master’s degree in public health from the National University of Singapore and a master’s degree in health policy, planning and financing from the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Before joining the Ministry of Health, he had clinical and research stints at the National Neuroscience Institute, the National Cancer Centre, Singapore and Singapore General Hospital.

Paul is a highly experienced healthcare leader who provides leadership development, strategic planning, major change management, performance improvement and advisory consultancy to a range of public and private sector healthcare clients in UK and Internationally.

He has extensive private sector investment and non executive experience, including as chairman, and is Chairman of the Board of the Joint Commission International in Chicago. Paul has held senior executive positions in the private sector, including BT’s Healthcare practice, and can draw on this experience together with knowledge of leading healthcare practice internationally to help develop solutions tailored to local client needs.

He was executive chair in one of the NHS STP/ICS groups and chaired the English National ICS Chairs group, covering all 44 geographies of England.

Paul has worked within three of the UK’s Health and Care Systems. He was CEO of Barts and the London NHS Trust, where he secured funding approval for the largest ever hospital redevelopment in the UK, £1.3bn. He was CEO of Tayside University Hospitals, NHS Trust, and other NHS organisations in Scotland, as well as working in the Northern Ireland NHS. Across these roles he led and managed academic health science centres, acute hospital services, community hospitals, community-based services including mental health.

Throughout his career he has served on National Groups advising Government, in the UK and in South America.

He has successfully led, demanding and challenging, health and care system-wide change, in economically constrained conditions. He has extensive experience in working with clinicians and supporting them in developing new service models and ways of working. He is skilled in leading transformative conversations in workshops, and other settings, with Boards, executive teams and clinical staff.

Dr Oviliani Wijayanti represents Joint Commission International (JCI) as Project Director for Ensure Safer Systems, a 5-year collaborative between JCI and the Singapore Ministry of Health. She oversees this multi-phase program that supports 17 Singapore's public healthcare institutions in driving quality towards zero harm.

Prior to this, Dr Wijayanti's career spanned across clinical practice, quality improvement and project management in Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam and the United States. She believes that no one should be harmed in healthcare, and has applied clinical and business insights to improve care quality and safety across acute care and primary care sectors. She obtained her medical degree with cum laude from University of Indonesia and master’s degree in International Health Management with Distinction from Imperial College London.